courted

adj

1. Romantically pursued; wooed.

   “'I think no one has been more courted than she,' she went on, 'but till quite lately she never cared seriously for anyone. […]'”

   “Were she, indeed, the daughter of a royal house, as whe has so often imagined in her dreams, she could not possibly be more courted or fêted by the crowd of admirers who surround her, and amidst whom she passes almost for a Corinne, only more beautiful and more mysterious than even Madame de Staël's world-famed heroine.”

   “Hannah's next visit to London was in January of the following year, 1776, and this time she was more courted than ever, on account of the success which had attended the publication of Sir Eldred of the Bower and The Bleeding Rock.”

   “Millamant, for her part, is conscious of her powerful position as a courted woman, noting that “One's cruelty is one's power; and when one parts with one's cruelty, one parts with one's power.””

2. Enticed by attractions from those who wish one's favor or attention.

   “And those circles to which a bon mot was the passport, could scarcely fail to be more agreeable than circles, in which, to be the most courted, it is sufficient to be the first-born.”

   “At all events, their having discovered the fact was by no means to his advantage; for as my good will was of more value in the family than his, from the circumstances in which I stood in regard to the Duke, my favour was of course more courted, and it often happened that it was courted at his expense.”

   “He found himself ever a welcome and a courted guest, and happiness, so long a stranger from his breast, now faded not again.”

   “The fame of Nero's five years rests mainly on the favour it obtained from a courted and therefore an indulgent senate.”

3. Encouraged; sought-after.

   “Now, disobedience is a self-disseverment from this mystical body—a self-subjection to the ban of the ever-blessed God—a virtual excommunication of our own spirits—a courted anathema— a forfeiture of all privileges and all graces imparted either by union with Christ or by fellowship with our brother believers.”

   “You can have little idea how far people were carried by such ecclesiastical differences at one time—especially so in remote districts, where quarrels of the sort became a courted diversion from the sluggish monotony of uneventful lives.”

   “It's a far cry from newscasters having to cut around an intelligent response from a gay man in order to downplay his acceptance of himself—now one of the most courted representations of a real queer person is a bejeweled, Teflon-like resolve to be the funniest, smartest, most cutting, and most beautiful in the room.”

verb

1. (form-of, participle, past)simple past and past participle of court